DVD front cover 

Long Drawn-Out Trip

 

Data: 1971
Miejsce: 

 Long Drawn-Out Trip
Sketches from Los Angeles
A Film by Gerald Scarfe (1971)

Format: NTSC
Running time: 16:23

The film that introduced Pink Floyd to Gerald Scarfe.

From IMDB: After a trip to Los Angeles, British animator Gerald Scarfe made this none too subtle attack on American values and society. Drawing on everything from the superficial nature of the society, the war mongering, the "me me me" greed, the make up, the diets and so on, Scarfe brings his own unique animation style into a flowing array of images which compliment the dialogue and noises that cover the soundtrack. The method is not always totally effective in producing a clear meaning but it is relentlessly engaging.

Indeed by the time Mickey mouse becomes a colourful blur after hitting some weed, the audience will be left in little doubt as to why this film has not really been seen since it was first screened in the 1970's. It is very harsh but yet very fair but not un-American (lets not forget that Scarfe is this way with the UK as well) although I doubt many of the flag wavers in the US would be able to sit through this and take anything away from it.

Here's an exceprt from an interview with Scarfe from REG #22

REG: You went to L.A. in 1971 to do the animation film "Long Drawn-out Trip". Could you tell us what the project was about and was it successful?

GS: Well the BBC in London sent me to Los Angeles, to work on what they thought was a new animation system. It was something called the de joux (ju) system which is spelled dejoux. That was a system started by a Frenchman which was supposed to make animation an easier experience. When I got there I found that it wasn't a computerized system at all. It was just a system whereby between shall we say frame a and frame e, it kind of mixed through b, c, d, into e. It kind of dissolved from one picture to another. So if one drew a picture it would then dissolve through, or mix through, to the next picture. Where as in animation you have to kind of do a series of drawings in between to complete the movement. But it wasn't a very successful system in that way. But since I was in Los Angeles, I decided to make the best of it, and I did a kind of stream of consciousness drawing everything I could think of about America at that time. Like, the Statue of Liberty, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Black Power, Mickey Mouse, Coca Cola, Playboy Magazine, sort of a million images all melting one into the other. I was supposed to be there for 10 days, but I stayed for about 6 or 7 weeks. Hence the title, Long Drawn Out Trip. And it was also a kind of a trip, cause it was very much the drug era. And it was a kind of a hallucinatory trip too.

REG: Yes, I remember the time.

GS: Yea. And um, when I came back to England I put a very complex soundtrack on it, featuring everyone from Jimi Hendrix, right through to Neil Diamond, you know, everybody that was kind of popular who was kind of popular at that time. And put the whole thing together. And when it was shown on BBC, Roger, Nick, and Dave saw it and they contacted me because they thought they would like me to work with them. And that's our association started. I simply got a phone call one day saying that Roger and Nick had both seen this on BBC Television and thought that they would like to meet me.

REG: And this was in 1971 or '72?

GS: I can't remember the date I'm sorry, it was like the same year that I produced it, it would have been around that time. And I think that I first met them around that period too.
REG: Is the film available now?

GS: Well I have it on video, yea. But the soundtrack was so complicated, in order to re-show it, they would have had to pay so many royalties to so many artists. That it's not likely that it will ever be shown again.

REG: So there is no way that I or any other fan could ever view the film?

GS: No, I have a video copy of it. That's about it.

REG: Oh.

GS: So it's a lost piece.

REG: It would sure be interesting to see. I believe your wife worked with you on this project?

GS: She did yes, she came to Los Angeles. Her brother lives in Los Angeles, and we stayed with him. And during the day sometimes she would come with me and paint the film. In those days, animation was done by drawing on one side of the film, and painting the colors on the other side. So they were sort of on the different side. And as they showed through the cellophane from the front side, they looked very smooth and well painted, cause they were flat against the cellophane. But that system is no longer used. I just recently did a film with Disney, and they put the drawings straight on the computer. And it's all painted on the computer now and not by hand anymore.

You can find the complete interview here: http://www.rogerwaters.org/22/scarfeint.html

Added:  16.03.2010